Not that this info greatly impacts most of us, but I found Verizon’s 2013 Transparency Report to be somewhat fascinating. In the report, released this morning, Verizon claims that they received over 320,000 law enforcement requests from federal, state or local authorities during the course of last year. According to their numbers, that was an increase as compared to 2012. Also, Verizon made sure to point out that they “do not release customer information unless authorized by law.”

Of the 320,000+ requests, 1,496 were wiretap orders, approximately 50,000 were emergency requests from law enforcement, 36,000 warrants, over 6,300 were trap & trace orders, and the majority (at over 164,000) were subpoenas. The “vast majority” of these were consumer related, with only a few regarding their enterprise customers.

Maybe it’s just me, but those numbers seem incredibly large. Then again, they do have almost 100 million postpaid subscribers.

Here is the breakdown:

On an NSA note, Verizon can only say that they received between 1,000 and 2,000 National Security Letters because the NSA will only allow them to “provide a broad range.”

If you’d like to read further into each type of request, hit up the source link below.

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mule0331

Ok, I have to jump in on this one. As a law enforcement officer, I can shed a little light on this article. Although I already know I can never, and will never dispell all the tinfoil hat, NSA stuff, but because the reasons for the requests are never really mentioned in the article I will go through a few of them. Now I can’t speak for all the agencies in America, but here are some of the main reasons my department uses these tools, and maybe this will help you see how there can be so many requests. When ever our agency gets harassing or threatening call complaints, we use trap/trace to collect evidence of the crime so it can be prosecuted. Another reason we make requests are scenarios where we have a missing person, or a person who is threatening harm on themselves or others we will request a location off the phones GPS so that person can get the help they need. When you throw actual criminal investigation in the mix you can easily see how those numbers can be what they are. Again, I cant speak for the NSA of other federal agencies, but as far as local law enforcement these are some of the main reasons we use cell carriers. Hate to make anybody feel less important, but local law enforcement could care less what you are doing on your devices.

Just_Some_Nobody

“…because the NSA will only allow them to “provide a broad range.”

So, just to piss off the NSA, what they should do is:
Let’s say the real number is 1876 requests. The range they should use is 0-1876.

normmcgarry

At 100m subscribers, that is one out of every 312 Verizon subscribers has been tapped? That’s great news!

M3D1T8R

…”unless authorized by law.” lol, right. Same as them saying, “We here at Verizon release and share as much customer information a we possibly can within the confines of the law.”

zachos

Number of law enforcement demands for customer data as a percent of total number of postpaid subscribers is about 1/3 of 1%. Percent of adults incarcerated in the U.S. right now is approx double that. I thought the 320,000 requests sounded high until I remembered we live in a police state.

John

Hell I thought it’d be more than that honestly.

p4

How many requests did the NSA make without asking?

SchwannyT

Thats right. These aren’t the “requests for information” you need to worry about. Those ones don’t show up on this report.

Adrynalyne

Can you really call it a Transparency Report if they won’t discuss NSA requests?

Ben Klene

Translucent Report maybe? I just don’t get why they can’t give exact numbers. Honestly, what would that effect? If we added up the high end of everyone’s report, we’d have a rough number, but it would be high. What difference does it make to give us the real numbers?

DanSan

much needed..

John Legere

Good thing he’s making it harder for the NSA.

Cowboydroid

If by “harder” you mean “not harder…”

John Legere

I guess everyone missed a few days saying that they need a judges approval and can’t store it in their database. Not surprised since everyone sees the B man on TV or news, they turn their channel.

Chris Knepper

Right, because they’ve NEVER lied about those things before. And they would NEVER lie again.

John Legere

Well, there’s always those who jump to conclusions too. Not like he’s just saying it to get re-elected.

Chris Knepper

He’s saying it to save face so people won’t remember him as Bush 3.0, because he continued pretty much every terrible thing that was instated under Bush. It’s been 5 years and our government is still overbearing, we’re still in the middle east, we STILL haven’t recovered economically, marijuana is still schedule 1 federally, gay marriage is not federally protected. I’m not saying I agree or disagree with those things, but they’re all things he campaigned on or said he would change and nothing has “changed.”

John Legere

One Word : Congress. Come November of this year, that will change.

Chris Knepper

I hope so, man. I really do. Maybe John Legere should be president. We’d have Un-government and taxes would only be $30 a month.

John Legere

They keep trolling

michael arazan

If the republicans didn’t block and fight tooth and nail on EVERY single bill that goes through congress we would be farther ahead. Republicans are only out to obstruct every piece of legislation. They could pass a bill that cures cancer and the republicans would block it. Last year congress was least effective of ALL Time in it’s history and set a record in it’s existence of not accomplishing or passing anything..

Just_Some_Nobody

But whose database are they storing it in? The carriers? Oooh, makes me fell warm and cozy thinking about it.

michael arazan

Carriers data base or some other company or corporation instead of the government. Personally I’d rather have the government have the data than verizon or some other corporation.

Intellectua1

I always wondered the same thing.. People act like Obama started this when all this was part of the Patriot act..

M3D1T8R

…which Obama voted for as Senator.

Intellectua1

The point was where the law originated.. But I see where this is going so I’m going to stop it right here.. I don’t debate politics.. Both parties are the same.. Everyone in government has the same agenda and not one man can’t destroy a country/government on his own. If anything its agenda and Obama is a puppet like every other president..

John Legere

Shhh, the black man is always the bad guy according to republicans and hillbillies

chjapa

So right. Both parties supported it. Obama campaigned on repealing it, then voted to permanently extend it. Sort of like NAFTA. Clinton, right? A little known fact is that Bush Sr. ratified it. Both parties are the same on the major, important (to their globalist interests) stuff. The more people come to this realization the better off we will be. The false-two-choice game where both sides are controlled by the same faction is played constantly and throughout history.

michael arazan

Obama and congress revamped the bill removing a lot of key parts that infringed on everyone’s rights in multiple areas of our freedoms. When it was renewed a lot of parts were amended and left out if you actually read the 2 different bills. We got a lot of our security back, but not all of them.